Okay, I was going to make you guys wait for this one, buut, someone convinced me otherwise. You were probably expecting another three months, weren't ya?

This chapter is dedicated to Starfire-chan521, for your, ahem, 'flame'. It made me laugh. Thank you very very much.

Ten: A Test of Subtlety

"Aaah! Naruto, what happened to you?!" Sakura screamed.

"Naruto, you're on fire again," said Sasuke, sounding bored.

"I thought I could smell smoke!" I grumbled. "I've been searching for the damn fire all the way here! Where the heck is it?!"

"Left sleeve."

I started beating it out immediately. "Thankyou! Stupid shock tag backfired on me halfway through and blew up a lamp. Scared the crap out of the neighbour's cat."

"You do look slightly charred," Sasuke agreed, obviously amused. "I thought you had the shock tags working?"

"I do, actually; the paper I was using was contaminated," I explained. "I'm not sure what the problem was, but it didn't feel quite right. Last time I ignore my gut screaming 'danger! Danger! Abort and run for life!' I swear, it's a health hazard, ignoring your instincts. I was working on one of my poison tags last night, maybe that had something to do with it…"

Sasuke snorted faintly. "Whatever you like, Naruto. But you were going to work on your flips some more while we're waiting for Kakashi-sensei to show, remember?"

"Oh yeah…" I stretched carefully, before springing into a backflip, landing on my hands, and pushing off again to land on my feet. Sasuke grunted noncommittally.

"No, you're still off-centre. Geez, can't you do anything right?"

"Teme," I grumbled, "this is harder than it looks!"

"You're still pushing too hard with your right hand and leg, it's turning you a little," the Uchiha reported, sounding smug and nonchalant to anyone's ears but mine. My ears heard the patience and encouragement he was communicating: no one seemed to have deciphered our private language.

"Sasuke-kun is right, Naruto," Sakura added. "You really need to practise."

"Yeah, well, I am right handed," I muttered under my breath, trying the manoeuvre again and stumbling slightly at an unknown terrain change. "Stupid rocks."

Today, with Sasuke helping me, I was trying to work on a particular style of backflip that I had been having trouble with. Apparently most ninja couldn't see what they were doing with this flip anyway, but they, unlike me, could see vaguely where the ground was. I had landed on my head more times than I cared to count in the past week. On the plus side, I was starting to learn the sort-of passive reflection of chakra that was the ground that would have helped when I was learning tree-climbing.

A poofing sound and a sliver of chakra shaped into a shunshin signal caught me off-guard halfway through another flip, and I curled up a little and went into a side roll so as not to crack my head against the ground. I had discovered that already to be not fun.

"You're late!" Sakura yelled at our teacher, who was probably reading his stupid book again.

"Y'know, I'm starting to think he's always late," I said, very sarcastically, propping myself up on my elbows where I was lying on my stomach.

"Yes, I've noticed that too," Sasuke agreed, also sarcastic. "Maybe it's not just a one-time thing?"

"Hmm, it does seem to be a bit of a habit, doesn't it?"

"I think so, seeing as he's never been known to be on time before."

"Well, not since he was an ANBU, anyway," I mused, before realising I shouldn't know that. Oh damn. Hey, where had I picked that titbit up from, anyway? I hadn't had the time to steal Kakashi's files yet… Eh. Not a mystery I could be bothered to solve.

Kakashi-sensei seemed happier than usual today. "You're all dismissed for the day!" he said cheerfully, and left.

I stared at the last spot I'd heard his voice, mouth twitching. "He kept us waiting for that?!"

"You know, the hunt-down-sensei-and-kill-him plan is looking better every day," Sasuke muttered under his breath.

"I vote we break into his apartment and set his bookcase on fire."

Sasuke chuckled tiredly; both of us were ignoring Sakura, who was yelling at a teacher who wasn't present. We didn't try to interrupt her; the mission to Wave had taught us some respect for female moodiness. "We can't do that, Naruto, he's a jounin and our teacher. Plus there's probably something to do with morality in there."

"Oh, by the way," our sensei said brightly, reappearing suddenly and nearly giving all three of us coronaries, "I need to talk to you three tomorrow, so meet me at the red bridge at five a.m., bright and early! Don't be late!" Then he was gone again.

There was a pause.

"I'll bring the matches," Sasuke growled.

All three of us chuckled slightly at that notion.

"Well, what should we do now?" Sasuke asked, then automatically cringed as he recognised what he had said. Fortunately, he was saved from a fangirl attack by a scream about a block away from us. Before we even realised what was going on all three of us were sprinting.

As we shot down the street Sasuke muttered, "Two unfamiliar ninja – Suna from their hitai-ates – one's holding a kid by a scarf, eight years old give or take, one ninja in black, male, mummy-like contraption strapped to his back, second one is female, blonde haired, looks bored, looks dangerous."

I nodded my thanks, matching the three voices and chakra essences I could hear and sense to the descriptions, noting a fourth further off, before declaring, loudly, "HEY! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

If three kids dashing down the street hadn't gotten their attention, that had. "Well well well," the male sneered, "what do we have here? More Konohan brats."

The girl – young woman, more like – sighed. "Kankuro, we're not here to make trouble. Put the brat down and let's go. You know Gaara won't be pleased if you cause a fuss."

"But Temari, he ran into me! And Gaara's not even here yet!"

The kid made a choking sound, and I literally felt my face hardening. "Put him down," I ordered, my voice quieter than usual but with twice the force.

"You're on Konoha ground, attacking our people," Sasuke remarked from my left.

"The kid didn't hurt you, so quit looking for trouble," Sakura added, with a tiny spike of killer intent.

I snorted slightly, the action perfectly silent. "You're here for the exams, not to cause a diplomatic incident that could take years of paperwork to clear up. Now put – him – down."

There was an almost soundless growl from the Suna ninja called Kankuro, and I stared at the spot I could guess his face to be with a stone mask, not glaring, but letting him know that I – and the rest of my team – meant business.

"And you can come down from there," I called sharply to a tree, the one with a set of vital signs and an unfamiliar chakra sitting on a high branch. "I know you're hiding up there."

There was the chakra flash of a shunshin, the sensation a little different to a Konohan shunshin, and the ninja in the tree reappeared much closer by and on ground level. "Kankuro," he said, his voice a cold growl. "We didn't come here to make trouble. Put him down or I'll kill you." His voice was totally matter-of-fact.

I almost raised an eyebrow at the sudden fear-scent flooding my nostrils at the third nin's appearance in the street. Apparently the other two hadn't known he was there, and were very scared of him.

With a slight rustle of clothing, he seemed to turn slightly towards us and said, "I am sorry for their behaviour." Then his clothes rustled again as he turned away.

The other boy – Kankuro – set the kid down and the little one ran away instantly, his chakra form immediately rejoining with two others before all three fled. "Gaara! You see, what happened was – They started it – The kid, he-"

"Shut up."

"Right. Sorry, Gaara. I was totally out of line. Sorry."

I was probably frowning slightly, doing a full scan of the three's unshielded chakra. It was slightly harsher than average Konoha chakra – probably from the desert environment they hailed from. It made sense that chakra forms differed from place to place. Zabuza and Haku's chakra had felt a little different, too. More fluid, though I hadn't really noticed it at the time. The third ninja, the one they called Gaara, his chakra was something else entirely. It was thicker, coarser, more bloody and hateful. Almost like the chakra of the demon fox Kyuubi.

"Who are you?" I voiced aloud, even though they had already started walking away.

Their soft footsteps halted, and at least one of them turned around to look at me. "Sabaku no Gaara, of Suna," the boy with the demonic chakra abruptly voiced. There was a short pause of maybe a heartbeat. "Who are you?"

"Uchiha Sasuke," my dark friend said coolly. "This is Uzumaki Naruto." There was a pause before he realised the third member of our team was here. "That is Haruno Sakura."

Without another word, the three Suna shinobi vanished.

Instantly Sasuke rounded on me. "What exams?! When did you hear about them? When were you planning on telling me about them!?"

"Calm down," I told him awkwardly, scratching my head. "I only heard about them a little while ago, from the sensei of Team Nine."

"Riiight, and when did you last come into contact with him?" my friend asked dryly.

"I haven't. I can just hear him shouting about them. I still hear him shouting about them," I added, twitching as a particularly loud bellow reached my ears. "How can you guys not hear that?!"

"Naruto, remember, your ears are hypersensitive," Sakura informed me. "Ours are normal. We just hear the normal stuff, whereas you can hear a jounin sensei from two kilometres away."

"Uh, point of interest, I wouldn't class Maito Gai's stealth as being jounin level. Think Rock Lee, with adult lungs." I shuddered slightly at the thought. "At this stage I think about a quarter of the village knows about the Chuunin Exams from him alone…"

"Chuunin Exams?" Sakura asked with interest. "I didn't know they were coming up."

"The jounin have been trying to keep it under wraps from the annoying genin population who will demand to be nominated," I explained. "The tests begin next week, though, so ninja from other countries are starting to pour in. Even if they haven't heard Gai yet, every genin in Konoha will know about the exams one way or another."

"FINALLY, Kakashi-sensei!" I exclaimed the next morning at approximately eight o'clock. "I thought you were never gonna tell us!"

Kakashi seemed confused by that. "What do you mean, Naruto? What would give you the idea I wouldn't tell you? Where did you hear about them before, anyway?"

"I – and most of the village – heard it from Gai," I informed him. "I managed to filter it out through some babble about the 'flames of youth' and sparring. Figured you couldn't be bothered to tell us about them until the last second to warn us where not to go."

Kakashi-sensei gave a definite shudder, one that I noted down as an unusual reaction in Kakashi's mental file – How well did he know Gai? That message last week, what had that been about? "Of course I would tell you three about the exams you're entered in!"

There was a pause before my horrified brain managed to reboot. "YOU WHAT?!"

"I nominated you three for the Chuunin Exams," Kakashi-sensei repeated calmly. "Even if you don't pass, it will be a good learning experience for the three of you. Here are the forms – fill them out and take them to the Academy, Room 301 on the third floor on the day of the exam. The exam is in one week. Good luck!"

Poof.

"I really am gonna kill him someday."

"Hey, I hope Sakura shows up," I announced suddenly as we – 'we' being me and Sasuke – stood in front of the Academy where the first test was being held. There was a crowd of genin from every country, their nationality identified by Sasuke's descriptions and my knowledge of village insignia – except Yuki, which I made a mental note to check up on later – hovering around the doors and fighting to get through.

"Why?" Sasuke wanted to know, keeping two fingers on my wrist to let me know he was still there even through the raucous din the ninja were making. "It's totally optional, and we'd probably do better without her."

"Actually, all three team members need to be present to even get inside," I informed him, voice low. "Before this mob got here I heard a pair trying to force their way in – but they weren't allowed. If Sakura's not here, we won't be entering the exam after all."

Sasuke grunted, sounding resigned.

"Hey, guys, Sasuke-kun, Naruto," came Sakura's light voice from behind us, carefully quiet. I smiled slightly in thanks that she had listened to the explanation of her loud voice hurting my sensitive ears and nodded in greeting. "When did you guys get here?"

"About two hours ago," I informed her. "I wanted to scout out the competition without having to watch my back too much. There's a lot of talent here, and a lot of no-hopers, too. I can't help but wonder how some of them even made genin – they're more cannon fodder than chuunin material."

"Come on, let's go," Sasuke said flatly, pushing himself off the tree he'd been leaning on and gently tugging at my orange jacket to let me know we were going. I followed him easily through the crowd, having gotten much better at focusing on an individual's pattern than I had been before Wave, weaving around the scrambling genin. I only lost Sasuke once in the mass of sounds and smells, and I quickly found him again, less concerned by the loss of my reference point.

Okay, so it still freaked me out. Just not to the point of mental breakdown.

We managed to fight our way through the crowd and bolted up the stairs, where another crowd was hovering around a door on the second floor. Why they were so interested in a door I remembered to be the broom closet was beyond me, but I ignored it and made to go up the next flight only to get yanked back by Sakura. "Naruto, where are you going, you idiot?!"

"To the third floor," I said blankly.

"But this is the third floor," Sakura insisted, thankfully still quietly. "That door there – it's Room 301, Naruto! Are you blind or something?!"

I felt Sasuke twitch. "Sakura, this is only the second floor," I told her. "We need to go up another floor first."

"That's just a genjutsu," Sasuke added under his breath, and I realised the door had been henged or similar.

"Those two chuunin must have set it up," I mused.

"What two chuunin?" Sakura and Sasuke both asked.

"The two guarding the door," I returned, just as confused as they were. "No way does that chakra belong to genin." My sensing had been getting better and better since the emergency crash course in Wave – I could sense power levels now, too, and I was starting to get a feel for the slippery shadowy anonymity that indicated a shield – the 'void' that had baffled me when we were fighting Zabuza.

"Another genjutsu," Sasuke realised, and I shook my head silently. Most genjutsu didn't affect me, but they still affected the people around me. I needed to work on my sensing abilities for genjutsu or my friends could get in trouble and I'd never know.

I listened to the sounds of a brawl starting and smirked slightly, shaking my head. Leave the silly genin to their fights, and the silly chuunin to their amusement. "Come on, guys, let's move."

As we walked upstairs, my ears caught a conversation somewhere further off – a room upstairs, I suspected. Putting one hand on Sasuke's arm so I wouldn't get lost, I focused in on it.

"I need to go and do a last scan on the Forest of Death," said a female voice I vaguely recognised as a Konoha jounin. "You have fun torturing the genin with intel gathering, Ibiki."

"I will, I will," said a male voice – the head of Interrogation, if I remembered right. What the heck was Ibiki doing here? "It's so amusing, watching them figure out they don't need knowledge, and then fail to do anything useful about it. And they wonder why making chuunin is so difficult?"

"What's the last question this year?" the woman asked, sounding interested. The voices were fading – they were moving away from me, out of my range. "The do-or-die, pass-or-fail, sink-or-swim question?"

"Risk and pass, or take no chances and fail," was the quiet reply, before they faded entirely.

I blinked and stumbled over the last step as I came back to my team. I laughed slightly, then realised Kakashi-sensei was standing idly outside the door to Room 301. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei," I said, vaguely surprised. "What are you doing here? I thought you already passed the chuunin exam?"

I sensed a glare being shot my way and smiled innocently. The book was shut with a snap, and Kakashi-sensei said, "I wanted to be here to make sure all three of you came."

"We already know that we need everyone here," I interrupted before he could tell us something I already knew.

"Hm. Well then… good luck to all three of you!" he said brightly.

"We have such a weird teacher," Sakura sighed, moving towards the closed door – I could hear more people behind it.

I went to follow her, then paused and bit my lip. Should I tell them what I overheard? Or would that count as cheating? But we were ninja; playing fair is for samurai. Any advantage we had should be exploited. And I shouldn't hold such an advantage from my team. My hearing was one of the few advantages we'd be able to get – the other genin would have years' worth of experience on their sides.

"Hey, guys?" I said, making them both pause to look at me. "In this exam… it's information gathering, not knowledge. Don't be fooled. And the last question is a risk-taking thing: risk and pass, take the safe option and fail." I stopped and scratched the back of my head sheepishly at their no doubt questioning looks. "Just… something I picked up… it wouldn't be nice to not share it…"

Sasuke breathed out faintly. "Thanks, Naruto, that could be useful," he said. "Let's show 'em what we're made of."

I grinned and trotted up to him, and we moved towards the door as Team Seven. "When did you hear that?" Sasuke muttered into my ear.

"Like, two minutes ago?" I whispered back. "I think it was the proctors talking."

He nodded, and opened the door.

The sudden flare of killer intent was rather impressive for a bunch of genin, and I raised both eyebrows. "Wow, hostile much?"

"Hey, you made it!" came the boisterous shout from somewhere to our right, and I smelled the unmistakeable odour of Kiba and Akamaru, plus the rest of their team. I grinned at them, and then dodged to the side to avoid a flying body.

"SASUKE-KUN!" Ino shouted as she latched onto her crush. "Did you miss me?! It must have been sooo horrible, being stuck with Forehead Girl on your team!"

"Ino-pig, get off Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shot back.

"It's… touching… me…" Sasuke whimpered.

"You wuss," I muttered at him.

"How troublesome."

"Hi, Shikamaru," I said, ignoring the shouting match that had broken out behind me and Sasuke yelping that he was going to be torn in two if they didn't let him go. "Oh, for Kami's sake, Sasuke, are you a ninja or not?! Do a kawarimi!"

He did very promptly, leaving the two fangirls to drop the tree branch he had substituted with and continue arguing. "So, Shika, how's life?"

"Hey, Naruto, I haven't seen you in ages!" Kiba shouted, right next to my ear. I winced, and listened half-heartedly to his happy boasting, not really caring once the volume dropped a little. It was nice to know he hadn't even noticed me delivering a message to his teacher. "Hey, hey, it looks like the whole Rookie Nine is here this year! Team Seven, Team Eight, and Team Ten!" Damn. Went up again.

I made a show of glancing around as I matched the six other chakra patterns and scents to my memory before nodding. "It looks that way. Wonder how long it'll last?"

"Hey, are you sayin' we're not gonna make it through this?!"

"Would you rookies mind putting a lid on it?!"

I whipped around and fought the urge to snarl at the newcomer – I'd sensed his chakra around the village, but I didn't know him personally. "Everyone's on edge, and you guys are making such a racket that some tempers are bound to go off! You're the rookie nine, aren't you? I'd advise you keep your heads down and not make trouble for yourselves."

"And who are you, anyway?!" Kiba asked loudly.

"Me? Oh, I'm Yakushi Kabuto," came the easy reply; Kabuto had a friendly voice, but there was something in it that I really didn't like.

I've spent most of my life listening to people talking and understanding more from what they didn't say or how they said it. A lot of people talk to me in false-kind voices, so I've picked up exactly how to tell what their real intentions are. I read voices better than most people read faces – and I didn't like how Kabuto spoke.

Sure, it was friendly enough, open, light-hearted, but there was a sarcastic tinge to it. A taunting smugness that just screamed at my instincts that something was wrong. A condescending tone in his sheepish chuckle as he admitted to failing the exam seven times – seven, that's sad. I passed the genin exam on my third and a half go, so how bad must he be?

I narrowed my eyes slightly, backing away a little, before turning around altogether and walking away. Sasuke followed me instantly, and Sakura came after us too, while the other six rookies stayed, not noticing our departure to the other side of the room.

"I don't like Kabuto," I told them flat out once we were out of hearing range. "There's something wrong in his voice, his attitude – stay away from him and his teammates, and don't trust them. Leaf or no, Kabuto is not on our side for this exam."

I had no idea how right I was.

I just thought he was plotting an ambush, an easy pass for his team later on.

I think it was after this that I started to get reeeaally paranoid.

A door at the bottom of the hall slammed open, and I glanced at it, instantly recognising two of the chakra signatures as jounin, and three more as chuunin – two of them the signals that had been guarding the second-floor door. "SHUT UP, YOU MISERABLE TADPOLES!" shouted the voice I had previously identified as the Head of Interrogation, and I grinned, knowing this exam was going to be funny as hell. "Anyone not in a chair in four seconds is disqualified and their team with them!"

There was a flurry of activity as everyone scrambled for seats, me, Sasuke and Sakura instantly springing for the bench nearest us. Once all was quiet and one unlucky team was chased out for being too slow, complaining the whole way, the man at the front shouted, "My name is Morino Ibiki, and I am your proctor for the first part of this chuunin exam! My word is law, so if I say you're disqualified at any point, get lo-st!

"This is going to be a written exam –" he actually laughed at the groans of despair and/or horror. "Yes, a written exam, you miserable worms! Come down here and hand over your entry forms in exchange for a number and your exam! Sit where the number indicates, and then shut the hell up!"

I stood up calmly and walked down to the front, where people were already lining up to get their papers and numbers. Following Sasuke, I stood patiently on the end of the line, swapped my registration for an exam and a pencil, and then read my number, brushing my fingers over the engraved wooden button. Having brushed my hand over several desks as I walked down, I understood the numbering system in the room, hazarded a guess as to my position, walked over and checked it. Bingo! I am so cool!

I sat down and scanned the room's chakra essences, finding Sasuke two rows behind me and Sakura closer to the front. The rest of the Rookie Nine was scattered around, along with plenty of unfamiliar chakras as well. Most of them felt extremely nervous. When did I develop the ability to sense emotion through chakra? That was a new one. Had it happened gradually, or had I had a breakthrough?

Filing the whole deal away for investigation later, I tuned back in, and I suspected that the sadistic jounin up the front was grinning. "Now that we're all ready for this, I'll explain the rules!

"There are ten questions on this exam, and the marking system is a little different to what you're used to! Instead of being awarded points, you begin with ten points! For every question you get wrong, a point is deducted from your overall score! If you get caught cheating, then two points will be taken from your score! If you cheat five times and get caught then you will be disqualified! If any member of your team gets a score of zero, then the entire team fails!"

There was a definite groan as that rule was announced, and I frowned. This was information gathering, I knew that already. So we were supposed to cheat, and cheating badly would cost us. But if the questions were hard enough to force us to cheat – and they'd have to be, or the whole test would be pointless – then chances were only very intelligent – or high-level – people could answer them. Which meant there were plants in the exam – chuunin or higher.

My mind was noting Ibiki's time limit setting (you have one hour to do this test!) and the tenth question mystery (the tenth question will be given to you when ten minutes remain!) and at the same time, I was tracking down the strong chakra sources in the crowd, separating strong genin and actual chuunin.

I pinned one down as a definite plant a bare two seconds before Ibiki yelled, "BEGIN!" and I flipped my paper.

I put my pencil to the paper and listened closely, shutting my eyes unconsciously as I zeroed in on my target – the chuunin plant. As he started to write, not too fast, fortunately, I copied his pencil's movements, listening to the slight scratches it made as graphite was rubbed into the paper, my sharp ears able to tell what direction the characters were going in, how far, and how far apart each new stroke was. This was a skill I had learned in the Academy when we needed to copy things from the board – I had taught myself to follow the teacher's chalk movements with only my ears. I couldn't read it from the board, but if I heard it being written, I could copy it perfectly.

This guy obviously knew all the answers to the questions, and I copied them all dutifully, finishing a good… oh, ten minutes into the test. Now I had nothing to do. Great…

First I checked my answers, to make sure the chuunin I had picked out wasn't a moron. They seemed viable, but considering I didn't even understand half the questions, that didn't exactly count for much. Although I was pretty sure the codebreaker was right. Codes were something I understood, my sealing experiences and reading between the lines helping me along.

Next I followed the chakra flickers flashing through the room as best I could, recognising the Byakugan from Hinata, Neji and another Hyuuga I didn't know; Sasuke was using the Sharingan behind me. The demonic-chakra-dude-from-Suna was using something near the ceiling that just reeked of his chakra, and Ino was stealing answers off Sakura with her Mind Transfer jutsu. Some guy from Rain (or maybe Kiri) was doing something with chakra and what sounded like needles, and one of the people I didn't know the village of was doing something with bells.

…and now I was bored again. I flipped over my test paper to find the back completely blank, and couldn't hold back a grin. Now, what to draw…

I pondered this for a few seconds, my mind flashing through all the conversations I'd heard today for inspiration, and before I knew it my hand was drawing, flickering over the paper in broad strokes, and I just went with the flow and drew.

Twenty minutes later, I brushed my fingers over the full-length sketch, raising an eyebrow at what I 'saw'. A young woman – maybe twenty years old? – wearing fishnet, a skirt, a trenchcoat and not much else. Her hair was pinned up at the back but the ends fanned over her head, and her face was adorned with a rather evil-looking grin. Sadistic. Psychotic. Satanic. She was holding a kunai nonchalantly with one hand, her other hand making an unfamiliar seal, the barest hints of chakra shading her outline.

I had no idea who she was – no, wait, I did. Her name was Anko, couldn't remember last name, and I had actually seen her face when I was three… I think… The rest of her… I think there was a report on her making Special Jounin a while back, and that had a series of photographs in it. That I had 'borrowed' temporarily. Apparently I had pieced them together.

I stared at the picture for a few seconds, wondering what self-respecting female would wear something like this, before I added a caption underneath.

Just to freak out anyone who knew this 'Anko' person.

…and I was bored again.

I spent the next fifteen minutes scribbling aimlessly on my paper, until finally Ibiki bellowed, "PENCILS DOWN! IT'S TIME FOR THE TENTH QUESTION!"

There was the sound of more than a hundred pencils clattering onto the desks as everyone dropped them. No one dared to make a sound as Ibiki started to speak again. "Now, before I give out the tenth question, I'm imposing another rule. You can choose whether or not to take this question. If you choose not to, you and your entire team fail, and you can try again next time. But if you choose to take the question, and you get it wrong, then you and your team can never take the chuunin exams ever again!"

There was instant chaos, people screaming 'that's not fair!' left right and centre. I pinned my hands over my ears in a doomed attempt to block out the noise and waited several minutes for the din to subside. Eventually Ibiki solved the problem. "SHUT UP!!!"

I pried my hands off my ringing ears in blessed silence, ready to block them again if it restarted, but Ibiki kept talking. "I make the rules. For those of you who've taken this exam before and been allowed to return, well, unfortunately for you lot, this is my first year proctoring." He grinned. "I make the rules, and if you don't want to risk failing permanently, put up your hands and leave!"

For a few seconds nothing happened. Then someone stood up and bolted – not someone I knew. That seemed to have been the floodgate, as suddenly the teams were dropping like flies.

I sat patiently and hoped that Sakura would have the guts to wait it out. Hopefully me telling them beforehand about this doozy of a tenth question would help them to hold out.

People just kept leaving, some slowly losing their confidence as the pressure poured on, others snapping in an instant under the strain, and still others holding firm. I waited, sensing the emotional states of the people around me wavering through their chakra, the flashes of disappointment, terror, anger, the whole deal. This had to be a new skill – I'd never noticed anything even approaching this magnitude before. Although I had to wonder uneasily what had triggered it.

The girl sitting beside me – Hinata, I now realised – was shaking slightly, her clothing rustling faintly, her chakra flickering with indecision. Another team dropped out, this one a Leaf team – not one of the Rookie Nine. But it was only a matter of time, wasn't it, before someone chickened out, broke under the mounting stress – was that killer intent I was sensing?

"Is that everyone?" Ibiki asked menacingly. "You're all going to risk your careers on this one question, and if someone can't answer it…" There was no response, aside from two more teams dropping out. "That's it…? Well then, you all PASS!"

"WHAAAT?!" the girl from Suna – Temari – shouted out. "What happened to the tenth question?!"

"There is no tenth question!" Ibiki retorted. "Or rather, the tenth question is the decision to continue, in spite of the risks, even though you didn't know what was coming!"

There was some startled muttering, and I thought I heard Sakura turn around in her seat to look at me, but I might have been imagining it. "What does that have to do with it?" someone called, Grass, if I wasn't wrong.

"As a chuunin, do you have the ability to say "let's turn back" halfway through a dangerous mission, just because you don't have enough information?!" was Ibiki's thunderous reply. "As a chuunin you have to take risks! You have to be willing to fly blind in enemy territory with no idea where you're going or what you're up against! You have to be prepared for anything! You cannot turn down a mission because you think it's too dangerous; we are ninja! The ninja life is danger incarnate!"

I nodded in understanding. The last question was a test of all that and more. A chuunin has to make decisions that could destroy their team if they pick the wrong option. The tenth question weeded out those who weren't ready to make those kinds of decisions, or weren't ready for the consequences.

"So you have all passed the first exam," Ibiki repeated. "Your second exam will be –"

The window imploded and I instantly ducked out of the way of any shards. Glass is painful. I heard someone land on the floor and thought I heard the clank of weaponry accompanying it as well, but I focused on the voice now shouting at us. "ALRIGHT, MAGGOTS! I'M MITARASHI ANKO, THE PROCTOR OF THE SECOND EXAM!! I WANT TO SEE YOU AT TRAINING GROUND FORTY-FOUR, ALSO KNOWN AS THE FOREST OF DEATH, IN ONE HOUR!! GOT THAT?!"

I winced and covered my ears. Urrrr… Looouuuud…

"Well?!? GET LOST!!"

Ibiki was busily gathering up all the exams from the desks – some had even ended up on the floor – when Hatake Kakashi, a jounin of one of the Rookie Nine, came in, eyes glued to his R-rated orange book. "Hello, Kakashi," he said mildly, picking up another exam paper and considering whether to shred it on the spot. "What brings you here?"

The book snapped shut, and Ibiki knew that the other man meant business. "I've been noticing some odd things about one of my students and wondered how he was acting around others, as you already know." He mock-glared and Ibiki grinned unrepentantly. "Ibiki, this might be important. Did you notice the blonde, Uzumaki Naruto, doing anything strange in your exam at all?"

Ibiki shrugged, picking up another paper. "He wrote all his answers down with his eyes shut, for one thing. And he didn't seem at all bothered by the do-or-die ultimatum tenth question." He glanced at another paper and raised an eyebrow. "Here's his exam now," he said, noting the message 'I'm bored!' scrawled around the edge in a continuous border, which didn't bother him. No, what was confusing was the way his answer handwriting was a startling imitation of the chuunin's that Ibiki had planted a couple of rows in front of him. Interesting…

Then he turned the paper over, and nearly had a heart attack.

"Ibiki? Are you alright? You look like your spleen just imploded," said Kakashi, sounding slightly anxious.

Without a word Ibiki flipped the paper around to show Kakashi a perfect sketch of Anko in one of her favourite battle positions, her left hand in a strengthening seal, her other one holding a kunai ready for a Kuchiyose jutsu. The evil grin was more than perfect, and the gleam in her eyes made the black and white image come to life.

He read the caption underneath.

…she's coming…

Kakashi's Log

…

…

…AHHHHHHH!!

I am slowly being driven insane by these genin.

I went to check Naruto's progress in the chuunin exams, and his handwriting was perfectly identical to the chuunin's he had been copying off. Or rather the chuunin they assume he was copying off, as no one actually caught him at it. Then he wrote 'I'm bored' to make a border around his exam paper.

But what took the cake was his new sketch.

On the back was a perfect drawing of Mitarashi Anko, the proctor for the second exam – who I'm quite sure Naruto had never met until she was introduced as the second proctor. He certainly wouldn't have had enough time to sketch her then. And the caption was freaky. "…she's coming…" It was enough to scare Ibiki briefly. I have attached it as a reference.

Also, before he went into the exams, he paused in the doorway, and then told his teammates the entire purpose of the first test and what to do with the tenth question!

There is definitely something going on here.

Note: How did Naruto know I was in ANBU?

Japanese Update

This is something I learned just this morning, regarding the word 'kami' in the Japanese language. Earlier in the fic I cited it as meaning "literally, God", but I'm now told this is not strictly correct, regardless of how it is frequently used as such. There is no direct translation for it, as 'kami' is used to denote various deities and not just the all-powerful God of Christianity (and several other religions, don't get me wrong).

However, as it's the closest translation we've got, it's the one we're gonna go with.